Storm Warning
by SmileCauseItsWorthIt
Summary: It starts just another stormy Friday night. Another tornado warning, another scary movie, another night at home. Boring, right? But one change of events may just bring the Curtis boys closer. One-shot.


**HEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEHYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEY!!**

**I'm hyper, I know. I'm also bored, a deadly combo for me. My best ideas come out of boredom though! It was pouring outside when I wrote this so that was my inspiration. Let me tell you, it was a violent storm! My story is the exact opposite of my mood. Weird. It's all calm and kind of dreary, but I most certainly am not!! I could ramble like this for days. But fear not, I will get on to the story once I take of this- DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. **

**P.S. this is a one-shot**

XXX

It was a stormy Friday night and my brothers and I had nothing to do. There was a tornado warning, so we couldn't really go anywhere. Steve was still at the DX working his shift and Two-Bit was at home with his sister. And Johnny and Dally… well, you already know that story. Darry, Soda, and I had already eaten dinner, given up on playing poker, and now we were trying to find something good on TV. Finally we settled on a horror film. I didn't even know the name of it, but it was something to do.

Halfway through the movie, I decided that watching it wasn't a good idea. I learned the name of the movie, it was called _Hitcher._ It was freaking scary. This kid picked up a hitchhiker and then the guy tries to kill him. The kid gets away, but for the rest of the movie the guy stalks him and kills everyone around him. Not the most feel-good movie of the year. Another creepy thing was that the kid looked like me. He was a little older and had greaseless hair. But still, that was scary. Even though it was scaring the snot out of me, I couldn't look away or turn it off. I just had to know how it ended.

Suddenly a flash of lightning light up the room, and then there was a deafening _CRACK o_f thunder. I jumped so high you'd think I was a jackrabbit. Then suddenly, I was plunged into an inky darkness. I let out a small yelp at the abruptness of it all. Then there was a low creaking sound coming from outside. I peeked out the window above the couch just to see the telephone pole across the street come down. I heard Soda mutter a long and low "oh shit." We wouldn't be getting our power back any time soon.

Darry went to the kitchen and got us each a flashlight. He then used his light to look at the wall clock. "Well, it's eleven. We might as well just go to bed."

I didn't think the idea was so swell, but complied anyway. Soda followed in suit as we made our way to the bedroom.

XXX

_I was in the movie. I was the kid driver. But instead of getting away from the stalker again, I was caught. I saw him drop the match to blow the gas station up, to catch me in its roaring flames. It was like Windrixville all over again, only worse. This time I knew I wasn't going to make it out alive. Before the flames reached me, the gas station transformed into the DX. I saw Soda and Steve inside. I suddenly knew that they were going to die to. Not only did my life have to end, but now theirs did too? Where was the justice in that? I was about to let out a scream when I suddenly felt someone shaking me._

I woke up and saw Soda standing above me. There was a scream lodged in my throat, but I had a feeling that I hadn't let it out. So why would Soda be waking me?

"C'mon Pony wake up. We gotta get out of here," Soda said as he looked around worriedly.

"Why what's wrong?" I asked. I was still half asleep and foolishly thought if the stalker guy was in the house. At that thought I woke up some more, realizing that was impossible. But I was scared nonetheless. Before Soda could answer, a flash and a boom that shook the house came by. I looked out the window and saw that the sky was a sickly greenish color. If there's one thing you learn in Tulsa, it's about green skies. They can only mean one thing: tornadoes.

I scrambled out of bed, knowing that we had to get the basement before one hit. The damage would be catastrophic and deadly. Before I could even put my feet on the floor, Soda was pulling me out the door. He led me through the kitchen and to the door where Darry was waiting. Our cellar was below the house, but the only way to access it was from a door outside. Darry was standing by the door with his arms full of blankets and flashlights. Everything else we'd need was already in there.

Sodapop led our little party outside while Darry brought up the rear. We were scaling the side of the house, but the wind was still howling in my ears. Soda yelled something over his shoulder, but I couldn't hear it. Just then a strong gust of wind blew and nearly lifted me off my feet. Darry grabbed the back of my shirt and held me close to him. I could hear my heart beating loudly in my ears over the wind. I looked up at Darry when another lightning bolt illuminated the sky. I saw an emotion there that I hadn't seen since our parents' deaths- fear. The boom of thunder caused me to jump. I looked to my left and saw that we had made it to the cellar door. _Finally,_ I thought.

Soda climbed in first and then reached up to help me in. Darry held the door up while I scrambled inside. Darry soon followed and then locked the door behind us. He sighed and ran a hand through his wind-blown and wet hair while he turned around. We don't use this place very often, but when we do, it usually was in petrifying situations. Except one time it ended up causing the situation for me. I remember it clearly. It was about seven years ago…

_The guys and I- minus Dally and Darry- were all playing hide-and-seek. It was a sunny summer day so we were playing the game outside. Steve was the finder. We all ran and hid once he started counting. I didn't want to be the first found again so I decided to find the best hiding place ever. Somewhere no one would think to look. So I hid in the cellar. I made sure not to lock the door behind me because then no one would ever find me. The door can lock two ways, from the inside or the outside. If you lock it from the inside, the person on the outside can't open it; but if it's locked from the outside, someone on the inside can't open it. But no one thought that was a problem at the time. So I hid there and just sat in the middle of the floor. You're not too smart at seven._

_At one point, someone _did _open the door. The light flooded in and then quickly went away. I think it had hit my shoe or something, but I wasn't sure. It wasn't even open long enough for someone to look around. I never got a look at who opened it. But after they closed it, I heard the _click _of the lock. I was trapped inside. I couldn't see anything in the darkness of the room, and that bright flash of light didn't help matters. I quickly stood and ran blindly to the door, and then into it. I felt the blinding pain and the warm sticky liquid run down my face from my nose. I fell to the floor upon impact and I could feel my skin on my hands and knees tear on the concrete floor. I whimpered in pain. _

_I wasn't sure how long I sat there, but it was long enough for everyone to get worried- including myself. Various thoughts ran through my head. _What if they never find me? What if I run out of air? Am I gonna die? _Now I feel stupid about it, but then those thoughts plagued me endlessly. Finally I thought to start banging on the door and yelling for help. The cold metal door did nothing for the cuts on my hands. Eventually I heard someone undoing the lock._

_As soon as the door opened, I promptly fell out. Before I could hit the ground though, Darry caught me. Even at age eleven he was strong. He placed me back on my feet and looked at my hard. I knew a lecture was coming. Darry was always taking charge. But when I looked closer I saw the underlying fear and relief._

"_Where you in there the whole time?! We've all been worried sick about you! Did you ever think about what could happen?" He said. At this point my tears had started up again. Darry must have seen this because then he said quietly "I'm sorry baby." And he pulled my in for a tight hug. "But never hide in there again, understand?"_

_I nodded my head. I never planned to go there unless it was absolutely necessary. That was way too scary. My parents ran outside to greet and smother me with hugs and kisses. They didn't even need to tell me the cellar was off limits, I already knew._

I woke with a start when another clap of thunder sounded. I guess I had dozed off. I looked around the dark cellar and saw my brothers sitting in various places in the room. Soda was half asleep on the floor to my right and Darry was sitting against the wall opposite us, keeping vigil. Someone had thrown a blanket over me while I slept. I sighed and pushed my self up so that I was leaning against the wall. Darry looked over at me. He walked over to me and whispered "Some storm, huh?"

Another clap of thunder drowned out my reply. Darry and I jumped at the magnitude of the noise. Darry chuckled and shook his head.

"One thing no Curtis likes is thunder. Mom would always tell us some sort of story to get us over it," he said. His voice had that dreamlike quality, the one he always got whenever he was remembering happier times. It was times like this that remind me that he's only twenty-one, barely an adult by law. I sighed as I remembered mom's stories.

"Yeah, she told me it was God and the angels bowling," I said with quiet laughter. "I used to picture people with halos and wings bowling in a white and gold bowling alley."

Darry chuckled too and said, "Yeah, she told me it was the clouds bumping into each other. When she first told me that I had said 'Well they must be really clumsy!'" We laughed together at that thought.

"So you really were a kid at one point," Soda mumbled as he sat up. "Man, that is loud."

"I'm sure the storm will pass soon," Darry said.

"I was talkin' about you," he said with a tired smile. I laughed with him at that.

"Haha," Darry responded sarcastically. "So Soda, what'd mom tell you thunder came from?"

"Aw man, she said that the lightning said something to the thunder and that the thunder was just talking back," Soda said with a laugh. "So I said, 'Well, I don't like the lightning!' And when she asked why I said, 'The lightning must be saying something mean for the thunder to yell like that!'"

We all laughed at that memory. For the next few hours or so we regaled each other with stories of things we used to do when storms came. How I used to cry and shake at the sound of thunder, how Soda would hide under the piano, and how Darry would carry around an old, tattered blanket. It kept our minds off the storm, even though we were talking about past storms.

After awhile, the storm seemed to die down. We were all thinking the same thing, _is it over?_ Darry looked at his watch and said it was 7:30 in the morning. We had been in that cellar for four hours. We knew that after a storm of that magnitude, Darry wouldn't have to go to work and school would be cancelled. Soda had that day off, so there was no worry of him being late either. Darry slowly led us out of the cellar and cautiously back outside.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion. I knew there'd be destruction, but nothing like this. Our property was covered in various items, but our house looked relatively unscathed. The ones on the next street over were a different story. People were starting to come out of their cellars to inspect the damage. I saw a mother holding her daughter and crying at the place where their house used to stand. Nothing except debris were there now. There was a lone dog running down the street, barking and looking for its owners. My heart broke at the sight of our neighborhood. I hoped Steve and Two-Bit were okay. But before I could even complete that thought, I saw them walking down the street, inspecting the damage all the way. When they got to our place, I saw their grim faces and knew that there had been even more damage than that one street. I'm sure they saw devastation and destruction and even some death on the way over.

It would take us awhile to get over the damage done to the places around us; but during that storm, the three of us gotten over some broken connections. We reunited by remembering the past. We were one family again. Maybe that storm was a blessing in disguise. 

**I realized the second I finished typing this that **_**Hitcher**_** was made after **_**the Outsiders.**_** But I'm willing to look past it if you are. But let me tell ya, that was one freaking movie!**


End file.
